Confused is the one word that describes this book. Who is more confused the characters or the readers, I am not sure. Maybe it is my ignoranc1.5 stars

Confused is the one word that describes this book. Who is more confused the characters or the readers, I am not sure. Maybe it is my ignorance that made this book reading venture unsatisfying, but in my defence I was not aware that I had to brush up on some history before diving in to this book. The writing was confusing and the descripitions so unnecessary that I was leafing through the pages like a mindless puppet most of the time. Reading for the sake of reading, that was what I was doing. This book suffered from one of the biggest flaws that a book this size should try to avoid at all cost, that is failing to keep your attention.

The story begins with a young girl who discovers a stack of letters in her father's library indicating about some dark chapter in the depths of history. An evil so alive that it can reach out through time and ages to claim anyone that comes in its path. This young girl like any other curious young girls of her age enquires about this dark legacy only to be told that her own history is connected to one of the infamous, brutal warriors of all time Vlad Tepes Dracula, or Count Dracula as Bram Stroker puts it and this story is connected to her own mother's death. Thus begins her journey through time and ages to learn more about her parents struggle, her grandfather's legacy and the secret they all tried to keep.

Now the premise seems promising enough but the book failed on the account that it presupposes its readers to be well versed in the Wallachian history. I stand corrected not just Transalvaniyan history but the Balkan, Ottomans and the Byzantine history also or atleast that is what I felt. Now the protogonist in this book does not have a name, she is simply the narrator or the historian. At first I thought I must have missed the name and read through pages of description again just to find her name. Then I checked the internet and found out that this character was not given a name in this book. The girl takes long foreign trips with her father and has this annoying habit of describing everything and everyone she sees so that she takes a very long time to come to the subject matter. By which time you are bored out of your mind. Then she makes her father tell her about the stack of letters she found and her father is visibly shaken but begins a story about the time when he was a research student working on his dissertation about Dutch merchants in the medieval period or something like that and his coming across a mysterious book in the library in the library he was working in. His curiosity takes him to his mentor Rossi who shocks him by stating he also found a similar book in his student days and narrates his story about the book. Now there is a story within a story within a story. Then as the story progresses your are taken through the streets of Istanbul, Turkey where the narrator goes on and on about the capture of Constantinopole and the Ottoman Empire. Then they move on to Hungary and the same continues, somethings about Balkans and the Ottomans, then back to Turkey and then to Bulgaria.

One of the reasons I read historical fiction is due to the fact that I learn something the same time I get entertained. Unfortunately this book provided neither. One confusing discovery after another by which time I would have forgotten what they discovered earlier. Labouring through all those revelations that made the tiniest sense with the hope that I would encounter the ultimate villain sometime soon. Only to have that encounter too little too late (some 50 pages just before the book ends). When I heard the ultimate plan that Lord Dracula had for them I laughed out loud(view spoiler)[ Dracula is a historian

and likes to read books. He has a great number of rare books in his library which he has collected over the ages and he wants

someone to catalog them. That is why he is doing this elaborate scheming, he wants a librarian for his library and nothing

more. If looking after a library is the ultimate threat that Dracula poses for the people then this book has definetly made

me appreciate the fact after going through it (hide spoiler)]. There are plot holes the size of craters and makes you feel like you are reading a very serious Austin Powers movie in book format. Well this book was a complete waste of my time and I am still not sure what possessed me to pick this one up from my TBR list after letting it sit there for ages.

To all those, perceptive readers out there , I bequeath my experience....". Never go in to a book such as this unless you are absolutely sure and have brushed up on your European history. This book is a great cure for insomnia and always be prepared to be disappointed.